Watching the World Pass By
by Nightsmoke
Summary: Alucard and Seras Victoria revisit the Hellsing Estate after eighty-five years, reminiscing and remembering.


A/N: The flashback scenes and quotes used here are from the Hellsing OVA's II and III, real scenes taken directly from the anime. I'm experimenting with spacing; it is very strange on this site. A review would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if my Hellsing fictions are a bit dark, I plan to do a more lighthearted one soon.

**All characters © Hirano Kouta**

**Watching the World Pass By**

Hellsing

"_All men are like grass, and all their glory is like flowers of the field…"_

_._

"How does it feel, Police Girl?" A tall man in a long trench coat said to the woman beside him. Without facing him she smiled, glistening pointed incisors barely visible behind her lip.

"You haven't called me that in a long time, Master."

"_The grass withers and the flowers fall…"_

_._

It was nothing more than a carcass of an edifice now, the leviathan of cold stone crumbled down and windows that were no more than black gaping mouths. The terrain wasn't exactly barren, but the grass wasn't as green and some of the trees had long since died.

"Those were the good days," Alucard replied, his coal black hair billowing around his face in the slight breeze as the two surveyed the land. He turned to her, grinning. "Remember when Walter first showed you your coffin, Police Girl?"

"Feeling reminiscent tonight, aren't we Master?" But she did. A little smile turned up the corner of her lips as her mind slowly spiraled back to the time when she first entered the Hellsing estate.

.

_85 years ago_

"_Walter…what…what the hell is this?" An incredulous Seras Victoria stammered, an eye twitching sporadically._

"_Well, it's a coffin, miss," the butler replied, as if it was the most blatantly obvious thing in the world. His eyebrows rose as the steam vented from the Draculina's ears._

"_How come something like this is in my room?"_

_Walter sighed. This would take some explaining._

_--_

"I still remember the scream you made," Alucard said humouredly. "I don't believe there was anyone in the mansion who _didn't_ hear it."

They lapsed into silence for a while, staring from afar at the place that they had once called their home. It was Seras who broke the silence.

"Master, do you still remember the time you got mad at me?" she murmured. "When we were in Brazil?"

.

_84 years ago_

_Seras, after hearing the last gunshot, tentatively climbed down from the hotel's cabinet, boots squelching wetly through the blood that soaked the carpet._

"_M-Master?"_

"_Seras, we're leaving," Alucard told her with his back to her, guns still dangling from his hands._

_She made her way toward him, looking at the remains of what was once a squad team. Seras hesitated, casting blue inquisitive eyes on her master._

"_What's wrong? Hurry up!"_

"_Master…" Seras trailed off, finally arriving at the vampire's side. "They were humans…"_

"_So what?"_

"_They're humans!" She cried, not understanding._

_Alucard whipped his head around, eyes flashing a livid scarlet in the dimness of the bloody room. "What does it matter, Draculina?!" He hissed, grabbing her collar. "Does it matter if the ones who shoot us and start a war with us are human or not human? They came here on their own!"_

_Seras's eyes were wide as she saw the bloodlust that had not quite ebbed from her master's face._

"_They came to fight us, they came to kill us, or to be beaten, and killed themselves!" The elder vampire went on. "That's everything! That's something that cannot be changed, and nobody can change it. Not God, not the Devil, and not you!"_

"_But…I…" Seras hitched for breath, clear tears standing out in her eyes. Seeing this, some of the clouded darkness left Alucard's claret eyes and he let go of the front of his fledgling's shirt. She fell to the ground, the bottom of her uniform becoming marinated in a pool of blood that was not her own._

"_No, that's all…That's all there is… "He turned away from her, his deep voice almost regretful. _

"_Master…"_

"_Let's go Seras!" Alucard began, regaining his usual confident tone. "In spite of your fear, follow me into the darkness, as far as you can."_

"_Yes, sir!"_

_--_

Alucard grinned sadly at that one. "I hoped you had forgotten that."

"Why would I want to forget that, Master?" Seras asked. "You were right, after all."

The older vampire glanced at his fledgling, her blonde hair flapping in the light wind. However, there was no need to call her that anymore. Oh, how she had changed in the almost hundred years since her indoctrination into the undead. Her eyes were harder, colder, the irises permanently red now with lines creasing the sides. Gone was the little girl who trembled in his wake, gone was the weakling who had desperately tried to cling to the last vestiges of her humanity. Now she did not hesitate to drink blood or kill anything and anyone that stood in her way, despite what they might be. Seras Victoria…in the last eighty years or so she had become just like Alucard, a true apprentice of the master.

She made him proud.

"Do you miss them?" Alucard asked as Seras stared into the distant windows of the abandoned estate. She did not answer. Not a problem. Alucard snaked his way into the essence of her mind and pulled back before she could forcibly remove him from her thoughts.

"Master! You know I hate it when you do that." Alucard grinned deviously.

"But I see now," he said. "You know, _it_ is okay to feel once in a while. Although not human, you can't deny that we aren't without feeling."

"But isn't that just a weakness?"

His ruby eyes crinkled at the corners. "Only if you let it be."

Seras looked off into space. If she listened hard enough, she could just remember how Lady Integra's voice had sounded, how urbane the droll of Walter's voice had been, along with countless others that were no longer with them.

"Do…do you miss them too, Master? Everything?"

He wasn't wearing his orange-tinted glasses tonight, and Seras was thankful that she could see his eyes. When Alucard met her gaze she saw for once complete truth reflected in the deep claret. It made his eyes look softer, almost human.

"Yes," he said, and nothing more.

"We'll never forget, won't we?" Seras inquired quietly.

"Afraid not, Seras," Alucard grinned. "That's our curse, the curse of all the undead. Humans and their world are so ephemeral, so transient. Things change in the blink of an eye. People are born, people age, and people die. Our curse is knowing that we'll be around to see it all. And we'll never change."

"How boring for us," Seras reflected dully. Her master grinned.

"Now you see what I mean, Seras."

"Master," she began after a moment, craning her neck upwards. "It's a full moon tonight."

"A nice night," he agreed, nodding.

"It makes me crave blood." Her eyes glowed a brilliant vermillion and she licked her lips.

Alucard turned away from the once powerful estate and began to walk. He stopped, holding out a white-gloved hand to his apprentice. "Then let us satiate our thirst, Seras Victoria. Come with me into the darkness, now that I know you can."

She followed him and the two hellcreatures of the night set off into the trees, leaving the ruins of the Hellsing mansion behind them.

"…_but the world of the Lord stands forever."_

_._


End file.
